My Favourite Books

My Favourite Books

As a kid I was a serial re-reader. I read Biggles Takes Charge easily 50 times, I’d re-read Biggles books over and over. Others were Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl, The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams, The Giant Under the Snow by John Gordon, My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell and Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark. In the end I realised I was being nuts as there are so many more books out there. At one point I decided not to re-read books unless it was a special book, but the most special I do not re-read unless I really really want to.

Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

I had never read Orwell until 1994 (but for Animal Farm at school). I avoided 1984 in 1984 and read Brave New World instead. I bought this novel in Calangute in Goa, India. I read it in my room in Anjuna. That was the first time and last time I read it. It is my favourite book ever. Since then I have always had a copy but never read it again. I sold the first copy back to the bookshop in Calangute. I bought another in England, someone borrowed it and never returned it. I bought another. This was burnt on a fire of all my books in an argument with my ex-wife. A few days later I kicked over the fire and the only remaining fragment of all the books as the cover of this one. I bought another. At the age of 45 I picked it up and read the opening page. It is the lead character’s 45^th birthday. Wow.

I still love this book, I love Orwell’s work and have read all the rest of his stuff after this. The book is everything I like, great visual detail, studied, clever, and very human. It spoke to me on levels that no other book had. Orwell’s style was at its best in this book.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I’ve read other Tolkien but this book is his best. He was clearly properly inspired when he wrote it. We all know the book, though I’d easily rate it over the films. It is a master work.

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

After reading this book I had to go to Alexandria, and I did. This book is not an easy read, you have to read very slowly to suck in all the detail, it is almost, very long form poetry. Durrell was at the top of his game in this novel. Towards the end the style slips a little and he loses his way marginally, but it’s not a book about a wicked ending or twist, it’s a book about the fantastic detail, imagery and characterisation through the whole work. Again, I have only read this once but it is on the future, must read again one day pile.

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

I loved this as a kid. However I found out later that he fairly fibbed, as it is a memoir, not an autobiography. I have read a lot of Gerald’s books but now that I know he fibbed a lot, I don’t know how I feel about them. It doesn’t change the fact that, as a kid I loved My Family and Other Animals. I did go to Corfu pretty much due to this book. Gerald’s Corfu is long gone. I read Lawrence Durrell due to Gerald. The rest of the books are certainly entertaining.

Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams tried very hard with this book, it’s way better than the previous Dirk Gently book. I like a lot of his works but this book is my favourite.

Dune by Frank Herbert

It took me a long time to get to read this book. I ended up with my grandads copy. I saw him reading it when I was a kid and I loved the sand-crawler thing on the front cover. Dune is an epic and really didn’t need the mediocre sequels.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I’m not the biggest fan of Dickens but I have read several of his books. David Copperfield is very similar to Great Expectations, but the later is really a David Copperfield “light”. In my opinion David Copperfield is his master work. It was semi-autobiographical, and I think it shows. He has a lot more to say in this book and seems much more invested in it than others. I don’t often re-read books but I did re-read this one and, as it is such a long book, it was worth it, as there is a lot of detail to pickup on the second read. I know Great Yarmouth well, and it was also interesting to read a period piece on the place. My only reservation is that the ending is rather disappointing, but then, for such a long book, that doesn’t matter too much, there is plenty that is so worth reading, in my “very humble” opinion.

Barcelona Plates by Alexei Sayle

I saw Sayle reading some stories from this at Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal. I have read several other books by him but this one is the best. I saw him reading the next collection in a bookshop in Norwich too. I asked him if he ever thought about writing a musical with Andrew Lloyd Webber. He then waffled on about Ben Elton. “Does that answer your question?” he says. “No, I meant would YOU.” “No, I’d never sell out.”

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

This is one of those books that you never forget whilst never remembering why. I have read it more than once and I’m amazed by it each time afresh.

Short Stories Vol 1 – J.G. Ballard

Unforgettable tales again. I read Vol 2 but 1 is so much better.

Three Biggles Books

1. Biggles in the Baltic
Was was number 1 favourite.. this is such a great ripping yarn about a base on a small island in the Baltic where Biggles and his chums started daring missions into Germany. As a kid it really had me involved.
2. Biggles Takes Charge
This book is so dark and has a great intro, W.E.Johns seems very inspired. What I liked most is that Algy, Biggles 2nd in command takes the lead for the first part of the book. However, WEJ does not keep it up and the final section, deep in enemy country is quite poor. He also drops Algy back into his “looking after the plane” mode.
3. Biggles Charter Pilot
Probably a very terrible book, but it was one of the first I read and I liked the ‘psychedelic’ feel to it. The chaps even discovering Dodo’s are still alive etc! Having said that, and even though it was a favourite, I have not read it for years.